All posts tagged Ethics

A key part of the script for any party hoping to retake the House is depicting the other side as broadly corrupt.

That’s why Democrats Monday unveiled the website houseofscandal.org. “House Republicans are enabling a culture of corruption,” the website declares, outlining the alleged misdeeds of a number of GOP members.

In their successful 2006 push to capture the House, Democrats created a website called “Tom DeLay’s House of Scandal,” allowing voters to click on their congressional representative and see how he was linked to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R., Texas).

In 2010, Republicans played up the ethics problems facing Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., N.Y.), the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Rangel was censured for, among other things, not paying taxes on rental income from a house in the Dominican Republic. The GOP suggested Democrats were willing to tax others but not themselves… Read More »

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider former Rep. Rick Renzi‘s challenge to federal charges that he attempted to extort developers and copper-mining executives in his home state of Arizona in exchange for congressional favors.

The Arizona Republican had sought to have the case thrown out before a trial, arguing that prosecutors wrongly based the charges on his legislative acts and introduced his legislative materials as evidence before a grand jury. The government’s actions, he argued, violated the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers’ independence by granting them immunity for their legislative activities.

Lower courts rejected that argument. The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Mr. Renzi’s alleged actions were outside the zone of legislative activity protected by the clause. The Supreme Court let that ruling stand without comment… Read More »

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who heads the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Susan Collins of Maine, the committee’s ranking Republican, announced Wednesday they will hold a hearing on the matter. The announcement is the latest bit of momentum for legislation that had been stalled for more than five years.

“Insider trading by members of Congress – if it occurs — is a serious breach of the public trust,” Mr. Lieberman said. “No one in Congress should be enriching themselves based on information to which the general public has no access.”

After CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired a piece Sunday raising questions about stock trading on Capitol Hill, members of Congress in both parties have been rushing to signal their support for the legislation.

In the House, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.) said that 43 of her colleagues have formally endorsed her bill. That’s a five-fold increase from Monday – when just nine lawmakers had endorsed the bill… Read More »

In his 2004 book, “Scalia Dissents,”Kevin A. Ring explored American law as seen by “the Supreme Court’s Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice.” Now Mr. Ring will have a chance to form his own impressions of the justice system—from the inside.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ring was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for his role in the Jack Abramoff corruption conspiracy, where the high-powered ex-lobbyist funneled trips, meals and other goodies to people in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill. “Evidence at trial established Ring to be the ‘COO of Team Abramoff,’ and at one of his sentencing hearings, the court also found that evidence at trial established that Ring was a supervisor of the conspiracy,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

“In one e-mail message, Ring instructed his co-conspirators to ‘thank your friends on the Hill and in the [Bush] Administration. In fact, thank them over and over again this week – preferably for long periods of time and at expensive establishments,’” the department said. “Testimony at trial from Ring’s co-conspirators described Ring joking about corrupting public officials by saying, ‘Hello quid, where’s the pro quo.’” … Read More »

The House ethics committee said Friday it will continue to investigate Rep. Gregory Meeks, following the recommendation of another ethics office that said a $40,000 loan to the Democratic congressman from Queens was likely really a gift from a wealthy friend.

That wealthy friend, Queens businessman Edul Ahmad, was arrested last month by the FBI on mortgage fraud charges, and is now free on bail.

In early 2007, Mr. Ahmad gave the Democratic lawmaker $40,000, apparently to help the congressman pay for a new home.

A review by the Office of Congressional Ethics said that money “appears to have been a gift’’ and not a loan, since it lacked the normal characteristics of a loan, including a set interest rate or repayment terms.

The congressman did not report the loan, as required by House ethics rules, until 2010. Read More »

The panel’s Republican and Democratic leaders said in a joint statement that it was necessary to review the committee’s conduct because “its work must always comport with the highest standards of integrity.”

The announcement is the latest fallout from the House’s ethics probe of Ms. Waters, a California Democrat who was accused of using her influence to help a bank with ties to her husband. The Ethics Committee was close to wrapping up its investigation last fall when the case was halted unexpectedly amid partisan bickering on the normally private committee.

Two of the investigators leading the probe left without warning. Those investigators are thought to be Republicans and were later accused of leaking details of the probe to Republican lawmakers. The committee’s top staff member, a Democrat, resigned from the panel a few months later, though his departure was an expected result of the Republican takeover of the House.

This week, the newspaper Politico stirred up the controversy with a story detailing some of the partisan fissures that led to the close of the investigation. Ms. Waters has sought to capitalize on the friction by citing the unusual public blowup as evidence that the committee is unable to conduct a fair investigation into her actions… Read More »

The House ethics committee announced Friday it is extending its look into whether two lawmakers and two staffers violated House rules.

The panel said it is still considering matters involving Reps. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) and Jean Schmidt (R., Ohio). It also said it is still considering a matter involving Greg Hill, chief of staff to Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas) and Michael Collins. There are several House staffers named Michael Collins, andWashington Wire wasn’t able to identify which one the ethics committee is examining.

The matters were referred to the ethic committee by the independent Office of Congressional Ethics on May 18.

“The mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject and the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect judgment on behalf of the Committee,” Chairman Jo Bonner (R., Ala.) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D., Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement.

First-year Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and his wife, Jane, sold their stake in more than 100 companies and mutual funds before he was sworn in, according to the latest batch of financial disclosures released last week.

In a brief interview, the political neophyte said he wanted to start his congressional career with a clean slate and didn’t want to give the appearance that he was conflicted as a legislator. Mr. Johnson’s political career began with a pair of well-received speeches at tea-party rallies about the perils of the president’s health-care bill. He embraced the outsider’s mantle during his campaign and is trying to establish himself as a leading voice for fiscal restraint.

But don’t think the Wisconsin Republican is hurting for cash; Mr. Johnson reported earning more than $10 million last year in compensation from Pacur, the plastics manufacturer he started more than three decades ago. He relinquished control of the company last year to his brother, Barry Johnson.

In the vein of putting your money where your mouth is, add Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who wants to see the U.S. return to the gold standard. The Republican presidential candidate owns at least $1.5 million in mining stocks, gold funds and other stocks and funds that hold or mine precious metals. He did sell somewhere between $50,001 and $100,000 in Gold Corp. stock last September, according to his disclosure form, but he remains bullish on the precious metal. Read More »

Anthony Weiner announces his resignation from Congress during a news conference in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D., N,Y,) offered Mr. Weiner, a fellow New York Democrat, some words of encouragement and advice: “There is life after Congress for Anthony Weiner and I hope he devotes himself to repairing the damage he caused to his personal life.”

At a morning press conference, House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) indicated he’ll be happy to turn to jobs and the economy. “It has just been a distraction,” he said. “The American people are asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ They want us to focus on job creation.”

Mr. Weiner said as much as he announced his resignation in Brooklyn. “I had hoped to be able to continue the work that the citizens of my district elected me to do,’’ Mr. Weiner said. “Unfortunately, the distraction that I have created has made that impossible. So, today I am announcing my resignation from Congress.’’… Read More »

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., is questioned by the media near his home in the Queens borough of New York, Saturday, June 11, 2011. (AP Photo/David Karp)

Rep. Anthony Weiner has told senior party leaders he will resign, according to people informed of the decision. Our colleague Devlin Barrettreports that an announcement is planned this afternoon in New York.

House Democrats have been urging the New York Democrat to leave following revelations that he sent sexually charged messages and photographs to women he met online. The House ethics committee has begun looking into whether Mr. Weiner improperly used government resources to conduct his online dalliances, and the House Democratic caucus was weighing whether to drop his committee assignments. Read More »

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